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Sunday, June 30, 2013

English Muffins, Reprised: Oat and Barley Varieties

Today it is 103 degrees F. Seriously. Even with fans and a little bit of air conditioning. The last few days have been a hot spell, which has given me more of a chance to experiment with English Muffins.

These, as before, are based upon Susan from Wild Yeast Blog's Norwich More Sourdough, but with a modification of the method and the grains. These are wonderful. The barley ones (option 2) especially, although the oat ones are great as well. I think I might try making some with spelt at some point.

Ingredients

Option 1:

Oat English Muffins

480g 100% Hydration whole wheat sourdough starter (red whole wheat)

300g bread flour

475g Red Whole Wheat Flour

180g Oat Flour

650g water

23g Salt

Option 2:

Barley English Muffins

480g 100% Hydration whole wheat sourdough starter (red whole wheat)

300g bread flour

475g White Whole Wheat Flour

180g barley flour

650g water

23g Salt

Method

Day 1:

Mix the sourdough starter into 625g of the water and then add the flour.

Mix until the dough forms a homogenous ball. You can do this either with a stand mixer or by hand.

Cover the dough with plastic ad let it autolyse for half an hour

Then add in the salt and the last 25g+ of water

Knead until medium development (passes the windowpane test). Should
take about 10 minutes by hand or about 3-4 minutes by machine.

I found this wasn't sufficient, so I turned it a couple of times by hand and then put it in the refrigerator overnight to let the gluten develop the rest of the way on its own.

It sat in the refrigerator for 12 hours. I turned it 2-3 times in the refrigerator before I went to bed with an 45-60minutes in between each term.

Day 2:

Take the dough out of the refrigerator and turn onto a lightly floured surface.

Spread it out a little, then cover it and let it sit for 10 minutes.

Then roll the dough out to about 1" thick.

Sprinkle the dough with flour and spread the four over it gently with your hands

Transfer the dough onto a floured cookie sheet, lightly flour the surface of the dough, and cover it with plastic

Let it sit for about 2.5 hours at room temperature (around 76 degrees).

Heat up a griddle or a cast iron frying pan, lightly oiled with spray oil to about medium-low heat

Cut muffins of the desired size. Squares, rectangles, or circles all work. If
you don't mind ugly muffins, you can take the excess and push it
lightly together. If you let it sit for about 5 minutes, this will make a
delicious and perfectly adequate (although not aesthetically pleasing)
muffin. Make sure that you dust a little flour on both sides of each muffin. Semolina is traditional, but you can use any flour.

When the griddle is hot, place the muffins on it and cover with a metal lid. You do not need to oil the griddle, but you may if you wish.

In about 3-9 minutes the muffins should be ready to flip over. They will puff up nicely and they will have a surface on top that is not crusty, but has a skin from the heat. Unfortunately, you have to judge this by your

Let them brown on the other side before cooling and eating. You can eat them hot, but they will have more flavor if you let them cool. You may also toast them.

These are delicious and won't heat up your kitchen. Keep in mind, this
makes a LOT of English muffins. So, once they are fully cooled, place them in ziplock baggies and freeze them (except for the ones you will eat over the next 2-3 days).

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